Lappano on the O-line

I’ve sensed a lot of interest on here in the progress of the offensive line, specifically how it conditioned over the summer.
So here are some of offensive coordinator Tim Lappano’s thoughts on that subject from media day today:
Asked some general thoughts, he said “Ben Ossai had the best summer he’s ever had. It will still be a battle with he and Erik Berglund out there. We’ve got to find a combination and find it within two weeks, probably, so it will be interesting to see what’s going to happen. We’re going to make it competitive and try to get the most out of those guys.
“But we do have some options there, which is nice. Sometimes you don’t have any options. You can kid yourself and say you are going to play this guy and he isn’t ready. But we do have some options this year.”
Asked about the size of the line, he said:
“I don’t think there’s a bigger line in college football than these guys. But it’s better than it’s been. We didn’t have anybody gain weight (over the summer) — that couldn’t happen. A lot of guys lost weight, though they probably didn’t lose as much weight as we wanted. But they are pretty close and in training camp they should be able to take off another 5-10 pounds before this thing is over.”
Lappano said that he was particularly pleased with the shape of Ossai and Chad Macklin and center Juan Garcia, adding that “our tackles are in good shape, but we’ve got to trim it down a little bit at guard.”
Asked why weight is significant, he said “the reason we make a big deal about weight is that it’s about getting to play four quarters. When you’re that heavy it’s hard to play four quarters. We’retyring to make sure they can get through a football game, especially at a place like the Carrier Dome (at Syracuse) where we know there’s no air conditioning there. It’s hard to play four quarters when you are 20 pounds overweight.”
MORE NOTES
— Meant to get this in earlier. Tyrone Willingham, when asked if there was a chance that names would be on the backs of jerseys this season said coyly that “there’s a possibility.” When pressed, he simply repeated that statement that there’s “a possibility.”
— Willingham also confirmed again that DE Anthony Atkins will not be back. Apparently it’s for academic reasons though Willingham didn’t elaborate.
— Willingham said that P/PK Ryan Perkins has come back well from his injury and should be a factor in the kicking race this season.
— I talked to Jake Locker for a while about what he did this summer to correct his footwork, which was the nexus of his throwing problems during the spring. The short of it is that he said it’s all fixed and shouldn’t be a real problem anymore. I’ll have more on that later.
— After the media day luncheon, the team was expected to have its conditioning test. Then it will hit the field for the first practice at 4:30 p.m. We’ll have more after that workout.